Second son of Fingolfin and the lord of Gondolin (S/60). His name seems to be a combination of tûr “mastery, victory” (SA/tur) and the suffix -gon (PM/345). His name was variously translated “Master Shout” (PM/345), “Ruling Lord” or “Victory Prince” (PE17/113).
Conceptual Development: In the earliest Lost Tales, his name was already G. Turgon (LT1/115), and it remained so throughout Tolkien’s writings. At the earliest stage it seems to have been derived from the root ᴱ√TURU “be strong”, as suggested by Christopher Tolkien (LT1A/Tuor). In Early Noldorin word lists from the 1920s, the name was glossed “fierce k[ing]”, but this entry was replaced with an unglossed form marked “ON”. In The Etymologies from the 1930s, Tolkien specified that the final element of N. Turgon was -gon, the suffixal form of caun “valour” (Ety/KAN).
In later writings, Tolkien considered several origins for this name, based on a variety of Quenya equivalents. In Notes on Names (NN) from 1957, he considered and rejected Q. Turondo “Lord of Stone” (PE17/112), briefly considered Q. Turucáno “Ruling Lord” (PE17/117) and also Q. Turukondo “Victory Prince” (PE17/113).
In his “Shibboleth of Fëanor” from 1968, Tolkien said his Quenya name was Turucáno (PM/345), untranslated but likely meaning something like “Victory Commander”. Tolkien said that his Sindarin name Turgon was a phonetic adaptation with no real meaning, but that it could be interpreted as “Master Shout” (PM/345). This seems to have been Tolkien’s last word on the subject, but it is possible that the final element could also be interpreted as a suffixal form -gon of caun “prince”; see those entries for discussion.
The Sindarin equivalent of Q. Turambar, the second name of Túrin. It is a compound of S. tûr “mastery, victory” and S. amarth “fate, doom” (Ety/TUR, SA/amarth).
Conceptual development: This name developed from G. Turumart “Conqueror of Fate” in the earliest Lost Tales (LT2/86) to N. Turumarth “Master of Fate” in Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s (SM/127, Ety/TUR) and finally S. Turamarth “Master of Doom” in Silmarillion revisions from the 1950s-60s. All forms of the name had essentially the same derivation as given above, though Tolkien vacillated between Tura- and Turu- even in later writings (WJ/315).